Wisconsin's Bo Ryan was not that concerned despite the rough start to begin the season

During an interview on SiriusXM Radio, Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan was asked if following the loss to Virginia on Nov. 28 at the Kohl Center if he thought then this season might not be as successful as most of his other 11 he has had at UW.

Ryan was interviewed by Jeff Goodman and former coach Steve Lappas.

"Virginia comes in, they know our system pretty well," Ryan said. "Tony (Bennett) and I worked together for a couple of years. They are solid. They are not going to beat themselves either. We hadn’t figured out our guard positions yet.

"You take Virginia, Creighton, Florida and Marquette, how can you say those four losses are going to make a team look like they are not a good team? That’s why we weren’t that concerned. We beat California. We beat Arkansas. . . . Maybe those wins didn’t look good at the time. But we knew we had beaten two pretty good teams, based on the way they can do things. The way Arkansas can scramble you up. The toughness and discipline of (Mike) Montgomery teams over the decades."

Ryan pointed out that one of players who was with him at UW-Platteville, Eric Konkol, is an assistant coach for Jim Larranaga at Miami, one of the surprise teams in college basketball this season.

"He’s the blond-haired one who looks like he’s 14," Ryan said, referring to Konkol.

And lastly. Ryan was asked if he tweeted.

"No I don’t," Ryan said. "I don’t. I had a parakeet once. That’s as close as I’ve come to tweeting."

About Bob Wolfley

Bob Wolfley retired in October 2014 He wrote the SportsDay blog and column and about TV and radio issues.